طراحی یک رابط تجارت الکترونیک: دقت و حافظه محصول استنباط شده توسط طراحی وب سایت

This paper describes a study conducted to understand, in part, the effects of web interface features (image size, fidelity, and motion) on responses such as attention, and memory. The increasing proliferation of B2C web sites and their attempts to enhance the experience of customers shopping on-line has made the work of Reeves and Nass on the psychological responses elicited by interactions with media relevant to the electronic commerce domain. This study is an attempt to validate the claims of Reeves and Nass and extend their theory to web-based media. We have conducted a laboratory experiment to test the influence of three web design features—image size, fidelity (clarity of an image), and motion—for an experimental electronic commerce website. Subjects were instructed to search for information on the web, and given attention and memory tasks that were then used to measure the impact of these three web design features. Results indicated that, at the early stages of a subject’s interaction with a web site: (1) higher visual fidelity images on a web interface lead to greater user attention to the product examined than lower visual fidelity images; (2) motion on a dynamic web interface demands greater user attention than a static web interface; and (3) an interface with higher fidelity and motion leads to greater attention span in comparison to one associated with only one feature manipulated. In addition, compared to smaller images, larger images on a web interface enhance user memory performance for images. In terms of practical applications, the study indicates that interface features, such as fidelity and motion, which are instrumental in keeping customers at one’s web site longer, are important and may lead to an eventual purchase. Second, it is becoming evident that a key role of the web site is not only to lead to the purchase of a company’s product over the web, but also to lead customers to visit one’s physical store, and eventually to an “off-site” purchase. The results of this study show that size is an important variable that influences customers to remember the image aspects of a product, and this might lead to a higher likelihood of off-line buying. Overall, this study confirms the relevance of Reeves and Nass’ studies in the area of human–media interaction. Also, it sheds new light on the application of their work to the electronic commerce context. It also contributes knowledge to the research community with a relatively new paradigm of studying interface and human–computer interaction.

Web design technologies have developed at a staggering rate in recent years. In particular, presentation enhancement tools, such as Flash, Shockwave, and Illustrator, dynamic HTML, and Java, have gained popularity among web designers to create effects such as animation, audio, and photo-realistic images. As a result, there has been a trend to incorporate these technologies into the design of electronic commerce (e-commerce) websites. However, little research has been done to measure the effectiveness of these interface enhancements, that is, do these add-ons actually affect customers’ reactions towards the products displayed? This paper attempts to examine some of the issues involved in this complex subject. E-commerce research in the academic community has proliferated in recent years. B-to-C issues such as Trust [2], Image/Branding [3] and [4], Perception [5], Consumer Behavior [6], and Interface Design [7], [8], [9] and [10] have been examined in the last few years. This study intends to add to the pool of B-to-C research by examining some of the issues involved in the area of interface design within the e-commerce context, specifically whether attention and memory of products could be affected in user interactions with e-commerce sites by manipulating website interfaces. The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 reviews relevant previous research in this area. Section 3 presents the research model and hypotheses. Section 4 describes the experimental design and methodologies used during the data collection phase of the study. Section 5 summarizes and discusses the data analysis process. Section 6 presents a discussion of the findings. Finally, Section 7 summarizes the conclusions of the study.

This study has empirically shown that interface features, fidelity, motion, and the interaction between fidelity and motion, play important roles in influencing users’ attention reactions in e-commerce settings. Size influences people’s recall of pictorial aspects of the products displayed. Overall, for e-commerce and human–computer interaction researchers, this study extends Reeves and Nass’ work in the area of Human–Media interaction to the design of e-commerce interfaces. Several practical implications arise out of the findings from this study. We know that it is important to capture the limited and fleeting attention of web-surfers as they move from site to site over the Internet. Therefore, this study shows that interface features, such as fidelity and motion, are important since they are instrumental in keeping customers, especially first time visitors, at one’s web site longer and thus may lead to an eventual purchase. Second, it is becoming evident that a key role of the web site is not only to lead to the purchase of a company’s product on the web, but as importantly to influence customers to visit one’s physical store and eventually lead to an “off-site” purchase. The results of this study show that size helps in better remembering the image aspects of a product. This may in turn lead to a higher likelihood of off-line buying from the same company’s physical store. This study contributes knowledge to the information systems research community with a relatively new paradigm of studying interface and human–computer interaction. It serves as a model for future study in this area. The procedures used in this study can be either replicated or modified with a different sample to gather further evidence for the results discovered. Furthermore, it can benefit practitioners in improving the design of e-commerce interfaces in real world applications.